Refrigerator



Sept. 29, 1942. T. w. RUNDE LL 2,297,534

' REFRIGERATOR I Filed Aug. 3, 1940 9 H o I I :[O I 3 0 8 7/ 4 0 101+ WI, g l

Incezzfiwaareii zumZ/ orne a Mm Patented Sept. 29, 19 42 srAr s rREFRIGERATOR Theodore W.

Randell, Jenkintown, Pa, assignor,

by mesne assignments, to Philco fiorporation,

Philadelphia, Pa, a vania corporation or Pennsyl- 2 Claims.

This invention relates to new and useful improvements in domesticrefrigerators and more particularly to novel closure devices for theevaporator units of such refrigerators.

Prior to the present invention, the closures or doors for theevaporators in domestic refrigerators have, for the most part, beencomposed of sheet metal material and these have necessarily been spacedsubstantially in front of the evaporator unit so that they are notsufiiciently chilled to cause the condensation of moisture thereon.Spacing of the door from the front of the evaporator unit in this mannerdoes not effectively seal the evaporator and, therefore, an appreciablequantity of air is permitted to circulate through said evaporator. Henceonly a small temperature difierential is maintainable between the air inthe evaporator and that in the main food storage compartment and,furthermore, water and foods :being frozen or chilled within theevaporator quite often take on odor and taste of foodstufis within themain food storage compartment.

Too, the use of sheet metal. evaporator doors causes the adjacentportion of the inner panel or the main refrigerator door to becomechilled to such a degree that when the refrigerator door is opened ormoist air contacts the cold portion of its inner panel, moisture will becondensed and objectionable sweating on the inner door 30 panel willtake place.

With the foregoing observations in mind, the principal object of theinvention is to provide for domestic refrigerators a novel anddistinctive evaporator and employed advantageously for the freezing andpreservation of foodstuffs and wherein all of the aforementionedobjections and disadvantages are effectively overcome.

Another object of the provide an evaporator of the character set forthhaving novel closure means in conjunction therewith constructed andarranged so as to eliminate sweating thereof and, at the same time,permit the maintenance of a greater temperature difierclosure thereforwhich may he present invention is to ential between the air in theevaporator and in the main food storage compartment while alsoeliminating any possibility of water and foods in the evaporator takingon the odor or taste of foods in said main food storage compartment.

Still another object of the invention is to provide an evaporator havingclosure means of the character described through which may be viewed theinterior and contents of said evaporator.

evaporator closure means of the type described which is quite novel anddistinctive and yet less expensive to manufacture than evaporatorclosure meansheretofore employed.

These and other objects of the invention and the various features anddetails of the construction and function thereof are hereinafter morefully set forth and describedand shown in the accompanying drawing, inwhich:

Figure l is a partial View in perspective of a domestic refrigeratorhaving an evaporator embodying the present invention.

Figure 2 is a view in front elevation of a refrigerator door thereofbeing open to show the evaporator and its novel closure rnemhen, and

Figure 3 is an enlarged diagrammatic view in section taken on line 3-3,Figure 2.

The invention, among other things, consists essentially in the discoverythat by employing an evaporator closure member or door havingsubstantially non-heat conducting and non-hygroscopic properties, I amable efiectively to substantially close the evaporator against'thecirculation therethrough of air from the main food storage compartmentand at the same time eliminate undesirable sweating of the closurememher and of the main refrigerator door;

Another equally important feature provided by the invention is thatclosure member or door such as this may be made transparent and thusafiord the further advantage of being able to view and inspect thecontents of the evaporator without the necessity of opening the saidevaporator door;

Referring now to the drawing, reference nu meral B. designates,generally, a domestic refrigerator cabinet having a food storagecompartment 2 and a door or like closure 3 for access to the latter.Located within the food storage compartment 2 is the usual refrigeratingevaporator i and in the form of refrigerator shown said evaporator ismounted in the upper left hand corner of the compartment 2. Disposed inspaced horizontal relation between the evaporator ti and the bottom ofthe compartment 2 are the usual food supporting shelves 5 the uppermostone of which may, if desired, support a meat or' other storagereceptacle t immediately beneath the evaporator d as shown. 1

The evaporator t may be of the conventicnai type comprising a sheetmetal shell of generally U or rectangular shape open at the front and Afurther object of the invention is to provide within which there arepreferably provided one or more shelves, partitions or the like arrangedso as to form. with said shell a plurality of com cover the front ofsaid evaporator shell and sub-- stantially seal the compartments thereinagainst the circulation of air thereto. As clearly illustrated in Fig.3, the peripheral edge portions of the closure member 8 extendrearwardly parallel to and closely adjacent the outer walls of theevaporator 4 for a short distance adjacent the front portions of saidwalls and serve to substantially seal the inside of the evaporator unitagainst the circulation of air therethrough from the food storagecompartment of the refrigerator. In instances where a meat or otherreceptacle 6 is disposed immediately beneath the evaporator 4, aspreviously described, the door 8 may be extended downwardly to cover thefront of said receptacle 5 in the manner shown in the drawing.

In accordance with the present invention the door or closure member 8may be molded of suitable plastic material such as, for example,polystyrene or other non-heat conducting, nonhygroscopic plastic moldingcomposition. In addition, I prefer that the plastic molding compositionemployed be such as will produce a molded article that is transparentand substantially colorless. In the case of a transparent door orclosure member, the edges thereof may 'be etched or otherwise treated orcoated so as to render said edge portions translucent or opaque asindicated at 9 for the purpose of concealing from view the forward edgesof the side and bottom walls of the evaporator shell and also for-thepurpose of generally enhancing the.

appearance of the said door member. Likewise, shelves and partitionswithin the evaporator shell may be concealed from view in a similarmanner, or by means of strips ID of material such as metal secured tothe outer surface of the door in positions corresponding to theevaporator shelves and partitions, and these strips III as well as anyother form of shelf and partition concealing means may be utilized as abackground or mounting for legends descriptive of the foods stored in.each of the several compartments of said evaporator and in thereceptacle 6 immediately therebelow.

From the foregoing, it will be seen that the present invention providesa novel door orclosure member for the evaporators of domesticrefrigerators which is of distinctive appearance and which permits thecontents of the evaporator to be viewed and inspected without thenecessity of opening the evaporator door.

In addition, and no doubt of greater importance is the fact that thedoor or closure member 8, being of non-heat conducting andnonhygroscopic material, may be placed close to the front of theevaporator shell to effectively prevent the circulation of air into theevaporator without causing appreciable sweating of the door. Thus it ispossible to eliminate sweating of the evaporator door and at the sametime maintain a greater temperature differential between the air in theevaporator and in the main storage compartment and prevent water andfoods in said evaporator from taking on or acquiring odors and tastes offoodstuffs in said main refrigerator compartment.

Too, another advantage accruing from the present invention is that thenon-heat conducting property of the evaporator door 8 effectivelyeliminates condensation of moisture and sweating of the portion of theinner panel of the refrigerator door 3 adjacent the evaporator.

While a particular embodiment of the invention has been hereinillustrated and described, it is not intended that the invention belimited to such disclosure but that changes and modifications may bemade thereto and incorporated therein within the scope of the annexedclaims.

I claim:

1. In a refrigerator comprising a cabinet having a food storagecompartment therein with a door at the front of said compartment foraccess thereto;. a refrigerating structure including an evaporator unitdisposed within said food storage compartment and having an open frontdisposed adjacent the inner surface of said door when said door isclosed; and a unitary closure member for the front of said evaporatorunit composed of non-heat conducting material and arranged to resideclosely adjacent the open front of said evaporator unit and between saidunit and the inner surface of said closed door, said member completelycovering the front of said evaporator unit and providingbetween saidunit and the inner surface of said closed door a nonheat conductingshield operable to minimize the chilling of the innersurface of saidclosed door by said evaporator unit to thereby prevent the condensationof moisture on said inner surface, said closure member having itsperipheral edge portions extended rearwardly parallel to and closelyadjacent the outer walls of the evaporator unit for a short distanceadjacent the front portions of said Walls to substantially seal theinside of the evaporator unit against the circulation of airtherethrough from the food storage compartment of the refrigerator.

2. A refrigerator as claimed in claim 1 wherein the closure member iscomposed of material having substantially non-heat conducting andnonhygroscopic properties.

THEODORE W. RUNDELL.

